Térésa

1851–1853 · Formazione

French Academy in Rome

1851–1854

Through Italy with Curzon: copies of Raphael, Titian, Assisi

At the French Academy in Rome Bouguereau meets G. Boulanger and J. Lenepveu, but becomes closest friends with the landscape painter P. Curzon; together they make many journeys through Italy — Naples, Pompeii, Siena, Perugia, Assisi, Florence, Pisa, Milan, Ravenna. Bouguereau visits almost all the museums and private collections, copies ancient Roman monuments, makes a replica of the complete cycle of frescoes in the basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, and copies Raphael’s “Triumph of Galatea” and Titian’s “Triumph of Flora”.

1851–1854

His tastes and the “discovery” of Giotto

In Italy Bouguereau’s tastes take shape: he names Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo as his chief authorities, finds Botticelli too “nervous”, counts Correggio among the geniuses but denies that status to Mantegna, whom he finds “soulless”. In Padua and Assisi he immerses himself in Giotto and discovers in his gestures and faces a link between Proto-Renaissance painting and French gallant painting of the eighteenth century — a “discovery” that will shape his work for the rest of his life and shows in two paintings called “Idyll” (1850 and 1851), reminiscent of Rococo pastorals.

after 1854

After Rome: decorating churches and mansions

On finishing his stay in Rome Bouguereau receives commissions to decorate churches — the life of Saint Louis for a chapel, the lives of Saints Peter and Paul and of John the Baptist for the Parisian church of Saint-Augustin — and the mansions of A. Bartholoni and E. Pereire, for the first of which he paints “Arion on a Sea Horse” and “Bacchante”. These works demonstrate his undoubted ability for monumental painting.